Office of the Historian

The Secretary of State to Chargé Benson.1

Department of State,
Washington, December 17, 1910.

Sir: In view of the fact that the Government of the Netherlands has no diplomatic representative at La Paz, and also in view of a suggestion made by the Netherlands minister for foreign affairs to the American Legation at The Hague, you are instructed to act as the agent of the Government of the Netherlands to present officially [Page 639] to the Government of Bolivia the additional protocol1 (signed September 19, 1910) to the convention providing for the creation of an international prize court, and urge the early ratification by the Government of Bolivia both of the additional protocol and of the original prize-court convention.

A copy of the draft of the additional protocol in the French language is forwarded herewith in order that you may carry out this instruction.

The authenticated copies of the additional protocol have not yet been furnished by the Government of the Netherlands.

I am, etc.,

P. C. Knox.
  1. Same, mutatis mutandis, to the following legations: Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Peru, Salvador.↩
  2. See p. 631.↩